New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is engaged to her longtime partner Clarke Gayford after a proposal over the Easter holidays, her spokesman says. Ed Giles reports.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is set to get hitched after getting engaged to her long time partner Clarke Gayford over the Easter break.
That’s according to a statement from Ardern’s spokesman on Friday (May 3).
But news actually broke earlier the same day after journalists noticed the PM wearing a ring on her middle finger at a public event.
Gayford’s the host of a fishing show on New Zealand television and he’s been taking care of the couple’s 10-month-old daughter while Ardern runs the country.
Her pregnancy that became public knowledge in early 2018 was seen by observers as a symbol of progress for women in leadership roles.
Ardern’s only the second elected leader to give birth while in office that’s after Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto in 1990.
The 38-year-old PM has been criticised domestically over her government’s handling of the economy but her calm response to the killing of 50 Muslims in March burnished her credentials.
And since the killings in Christchurch Ardern has become a symbol around the world of a strong but calm stateswoman.